Let’s just take a minute to enjoy what living in the moment on the farm looks like in July! The beauty! The bounty! Last week I invited my friend Rachel over to cut some flowers and run with them. She is insanely talented, obviously. She uses our flowers as often as possible and she now lives in the same zip code (YAY!) so I hope to have more opportunities to play with flowers as the season(s) unfold. We had been planning to co-host a lisianthus-filled workshop in late Summer 2020 but then Covid…Hopefully in 2021!

I had planned to do a little interview with Rachel for the blog but let’s be honest it was fun to catch up in real life (Socially distanced of course) and so I didn’t end up writing anything down while she designed, but a couple of things I remember from our visit — She said she loves local snapdragons because of their bold colors. Imports fade and she rarely sees such colorful and ruffly varieties (thanks Mme. Butterfly!). She also loved the variations in the zinnias we grow. Zinnias aren’t typically a flower that Rachel works with but as you can see she incorporated a lot of them in her design. YAY!

My favorite thing about this visit and her design (besides - duh - the artichokes) was watching the process - from walking the field and seeing what she decided to work with and what caught her eye, to the placement of the flowers (she makes it look effortless, even in 95 degrees - but it is not effortless, I assure you!) I of course also love seeing the finished product and am so proud that something so beautiful can come straight from our field. Long live local flowers!!!